If you just let me
by Hisgirlfelicity
Summary: Famous in love AU- Rainer needs a favor and Paige is really the only one who can help
1. 3:47 AM

Paige has lived with Cassie and Jake long enough, at least, to know that Cassie's snores are always followed closely by a small fluttery sigh and that Jake, more or less, sleeps like the dead (i.e. no snoring involved) It's a small detail to know about someone, though it's enough to help her realize that the loud and unruly snores currently booming through the small apartment are not coming from one of her roommates. The snores startle her out of sleep slowly, like an itch on her nose that won't leave her alone. She frowns, still mostly asleep, trying desperately to hold onto unconsciousness. it's all to no avail, though, and soon she finds herself surrendering to the noise as she reluctantly pops one eye open.

It's late, she knows, though she still reaches over to confirm with the bright screen of her phone. 3:47a.m. " _Christ_ " she mutters, and the sound of it is almost immediately lost to the symphony of snorts and sputters echoing through the darkness of the house. She's disoriented by the entire situation for a moment before grunting and rolling onto her side, mourning the fact that her alarm will go off in less than three hours.

The snoring continues, of course, and really, the sound is excruciating.

When Paige finally reaches the origin of the noise, droopy-eyed and only really half awake, it takes her a couple moments to recognize the dude currently passed out on the small couch. His hair is disheveled, sticking out in every direction and his mouth is slightly parted, a small path of droll trailing the corner of his lips.

its Rainer Devon, she decides after a couple moments of staring. Her eyes go wide in disbelief and she blinks once, then twice but the snoring lump never changes form. Its him- or at least it looks like him—the eyebrows, the jaw- She's seen enough of his movies, at least, to recognize that jawline when she sees it.

Her next thought, of course, is _why is Rainer Devon sleeping on my couch?_ -logical question, though perhaps a little too complex for her still sleep-muddled brain.

She's still sorting through it all when Cassie shuffles into the living room. Her yawns suggest sleep interrupted as she makes her way over with her robe tied tightly around her waist, looking some middle between guilty and apologetic.

Paige doesn't need to say much, only: "Cassie, why is Rainer Devon passed out on the couch?"

Cassie lifts both hands in what's meant to be a calming gesture and says "Paige, I can explain-I didn't kidnap him, I swear"

Paige nods, wide eyes flickering between her friend and the passed-out lump on the couch

Cassie pauses for a moment, eyebrows knitting together with concern as she glances wearily at Rainer "I was working my shift at the Pizza Dome, you know, Friday night, super busy- and towards the end of the night _Rainer Devon_ strolls in with some massive cult of girls-buys copious amounts of pizza-and I'm talking _thousands of dollars' worth_ " she pauses, throwing him another glance and shifting her weight in that nervous way that she sometimes does before a test or a big audition.

"The place got crazy, half of LA must have been there-#WhereisRainer apparently gets a lot of foot traffic" she shrugs "Anyways, when we were cleaning up, he was just there, passed out on the bar-I-I mean, at one of the tables" Cassie pauses, peeking again in his direction before continuing "The party was over, no more drinks, no more selfies and he was just so…. _alone_. And I don't know Paige, I couldn't just leave him there"

Paige nods concedingly and Cassie swallows, knits her fingers together and adds, "Plus he was _wasted_ , it would've been irresponsible to just leave him there to fend for himself, what if he had liver failure or-or choked on his own vomit like on CSI"

She's right, obviously, and the mental image of Rainer Devon choking on his own vomit forces Paige to take a moment to actually _see_ him.

It really does seem like he's seen better days. His shirt, one of those patterned silky numbers that looks like it might cost the same as their rent, is crumpled at all the movable joints in a way that may never iron out smooth ever again. There's a crust of what looks suspiciously like dry vomit splattered down the front and some of the buttons towards the collar of the shirt look tired from holding him together. He's sprawled over the length of the couch, leg hanging off, neck twisted-

"What a mess"

She's not sure if she means him or the situation though, still, Cassie nods

.

.

.

In the end, they decide it's best to let him sleep.

They wake early, early enough to intercept Jake and explain-he listens closely to the whole story with an unreadable expression and when Cassie has finally blurted out all that needs to be said he nods calmly and says, "This town is fucking nuts"

Then they're all sitting in a semi-circle, sharing the narrow surface of the coffee table, gawking shamelessly at the guy who is, more or less, the embodiment of fame. It's not nearly as glamorous as perhaps they would expect and the snoring, oh god, the snoring has somehow gotten _worse_.

"Who knew Rainer Devon snored like a freight train"

"No one, Cassie- I'm sure his PR team goes through great lengths to keep _that_ on lock"

"It's so _nasally_ "

"Maybe it's a medical condition"

They all look at each other in serious consideration

"Maybe it's- "

But then a deep and stale voice interrupts, "It runs in the family" a yawn, then a wince "you should hear my mother, she's ten times worse"

Rainer Devon blinks a couple times, harder probably than is entirely necessary, though still the world around him remains blurry and much too bright, _why is everything so bright_

His head is pounding and his mouth tastes like whiskey and vomit

"It's the morning" Paige says carefully "That's why, uh, it's so bright"

" _What_?"

"You asked why it was bright, its um morning"

" _Right_ " Rainer says, dragging out the word long enough to look around "Yes, morning" A pause, and then "and who are you guys again?"

at that Cassie sighs "It's a long story buddy"

.

.

.

Months after, Paige sits on that same couch, legs cramped up from crossing and uncrossing, starring intently and mostly speechless up at Rainer Devon.

Who, on his end, is staring down at her pleadingly

"Um" Paige says "What?"

"Paige C'mon" he's pacing back and forth, talking a mile a minute. It's making her head spin, really, and all she can really do is stare up at him with her mouth slightly ajar.

"Listen" he starts again, "I know it sounds bad, but it won't be- _bad_ \- it'll be fun, maybe, and it's just this one time and- "

"Wait, Rainer, I know I heard you but I'm not quite sure I…. _understood_ you?" and Paige should be used to that, she realizes, even as she hears herself say it, because Rainer is… Rainer is _Rainer_. And she hasn't really seen him all that much since he woke up on the couch in their apartment…There was that party he threw in their honor for 'saving his life' which looked like it cost way too much money and had way too many people they didn't know-and then there was that one time he stopped by randomly with takeout and a movie, which they ate and watched sort of awkwardly- but other than that…she really doesn't know him at all- and yet here he is, asking her to-

"Just be my girlfriend, Paige" he blurts out again, staring at her with big brown pleading eyes "It's _one_ event' he says, lifting a single finger to illustrate his point "just pretend to be my girlfriend for one event, _please_ " he looks, well, desperate and Paige can't help but feel just a little bit bad for him, all things considered

"No way, Rainer, why don't you ask one of your actress friends, isn't that what they do for a living? _Act_?"

Rainer sighs and rolls his eyes "No, that's precisely it, I need someone completely unknown, a _nobody_ -" sensing potential offense, Rainer pauses and takes a second to regroup. Paige thinks that she should be concerned as she practically sees a lightbulb go off in his head.

He circles around the coffee table and onto the spot next to her on the couch. Suddenly, he's close, close enough to feel the warmth that might live under the sleeves of his t-shirt. He smells of something probably expensive and his voice is soft yet almost mocking when he finally speaks "do it if only out of pity Paige- I _was_ just cheated on and ridiculed on E! news for the whole world to see" it hangs between them for a moment, the elephant in the room, the entire reason he's here, practically begging her to make an appearance with him at some red carpet event to ward off the bad press.

Although Paige isn't quite sure that what he needs is new relationship buzz, she still asks "and your mother is on board with this?"

"It was her idea, actually"

Paige sighs and peaks up at him from under her eyelashes, he knows exactly what he's doing, that much is obvious, and he know her well enough, at least, to know that she's a sucker for a sob story.

"one event, Rainer, _one_ "

His face erupts into a smile and inside, Paige hopes she hasn't made some astronomical mistake.


	2. New romantics

He didn't so much as get into acting as have his mom, renowned producer Nina Devon, shove him into a room full of blank faced execs under the guise of skipping school to get ice cream when he was, give or take, six years old.

He doesn't remember a lot of it, just being bored and wanting ice cream " _He was born to be a star_ " he remembers Nina saying that but he can never remember the ice cream.

He did his first movie later that year, some short speaking role in a Damon action flick and the rest, as they say, Is history. He's always figured it was a better alternative to getting his own private nanny and everyone in a ten-mile radius of him at any given time wanted to be a star, anyways, what with the Hollywood sign shedding silver dreams and golden hopes. Might as well.

So, he takes the roles that he's told, does the press that's asked of him, wears the clothes that show up in his dressing room, it's hardly rocket science more than it is utterly exhausting. There's days where he can hardly find it in himself to keep his temper, hand twitching for something strong to keep the smile on his face. He's never proud of it but it always gets the job done.

His fingers twitch for it now, the bitter taste of the first sip, the warm embrace of all that follow.

No, he's far from the comfort of that. Instead, he burns under the lights of a studio office. There's a picture of him that sits on the desk, he tries to remember the day it was taken. He can't. He focuses on his mom though for a moment he sees only a blur of narrowed eyes and broad expectations.

"What do you mean, ' _no_ '?

Rainer sighs-a sound of resignation, it's not like he expected things to go smoothly, not with his mom, anyways

"I mean _no_ , mom" it's strange, the taste of it in his mouth. Still, he continues, eyes unwavering, palms only a little sweaty "we do this my way, with Paige, or not at all" it's a little shaky, though not bad for his first time, he decides.

Nina, who is quite obviously taken aback blinks as if clearing her vision of something perturbing

He stalks off before she can say anything more, a grin meant for only him on his face, relishing in his small kind of victory.

.

.

.

"It's not that big of a deal"

"It's not _\- it's not that big of a deal_ " she hates it when he laughs like that, like he knows something she doesn't, like she's not capable of making her own decisions

"You barley know him, Paige"

"I barely knew you guys when I moved in"

"That's different!"

"Not that different"

"Different enough for it to be dangerous, Paige"

Exhausting-He is exhausting and Paige is tired of arguing

"Cassie" she calls out-a plea for help "can you please explain to Mr. paranoid here that I won't be in any immediate danger- I mean its Rainer, we sat there and watched him almost cry at the end of _Casablanca_ "

Cassie shrugs one shoulder into her neck "She's got a point, Jake"

"Plus-" Paige adds, swinging her book bag over one shoulder "isn't that what friends are for?"

and Jake scoffs because, well, because he's Jake "What, we're all friends with _Rainer Devon_ now, since when?"

Paige shoots him a look and instead of dignifying it with a completely relevant response- "Well I gotta go, I have class, you know, big midterm before break"

It's enough to derail him because she's guessing he _also_ has midterms and then he's back to typing furiously away at his laptop

She accepts a look of pity coming from Cassie and shrugs, _he'll get over it_ , Cassie nods in silent understanding. There's one small smile more before she remembers that she actually _does_ have a midterm to get to and then she's rushing out the door, the warm California air kissing at her cheeks

.

.

.

A couple hours and one midterm later, she's tilting her head at the sight of a very expensive looking car parked outside of her apartment. It strikes her as odd for a moment until she spots a similarly expensive looking movie star leaning against the hood of the sleek black sports car.

He grins out at her, scrunching up his nose against the glare of the sun "There she is"

"here I am" for a moment she wonders if they should hug or something, for another moment it seems like he might lean forward- They don't, he doesn't and instead they stand in a semi awkward silence under the lazy rays of the early afternoon.

He talks first, in a burst, as if suddenly remembering why he's here

"listen, I came by to drop off your plane ticket, I didn't know what time you'd be in so- "

Paige shakes he head because obviously, _obviously_ she heard wrong-

"I'm sorry, did you just- did you just say _plane ticket_ "

He has the decency, at least, to look contrite " _Yeah_ , I meant to tell you, the event is in Vegas- you know, press for the studio, movie premiere-"

Paige glares, sighs (because of course she shouldn't be surprised), then picks the white envelope out of his hand. Without another word, she steps around him and his luxury car and makes her way into the apartment

"Okay!" she hears him call out halfway into climbing the stairs "I'll pick you up tomorrow!"

"I'll meet you there" she calls back after envisioning a hoard of Paparazzi mobbing her building and grimacing, she'd rather keep this away from her everyday life and she's seen him get mobbed on TMZ-as they say, better safe than sorry

She does meet him there and they board in relative silence, save for the couple muttered words into each other's ears for the sake of the cameras. It's strange how easily she falls into the fake girlfriend routine with him though she chooses not to dwell on the fact

"hey" he says, half an hour or so into the flight, soft voice slicing through the comfortable silence "I just want to say thank you for doing this" and he looks, well he looks vulnerable "I-I know we don't know each other that well but-" he pauses and looks at her as if considering something that has just dawned on him "I feel like I can trust you" He chuckles softly "is that weird? Sorry that sounded a lot less weird in my head- "

"It's not weird Rainer, I-I mean, of course you can trust me, that's what friends are for right?"

The look on his face now is different, shiny, brand new

"friends" he parrots "I like the sound of that"


End file.
